Meet the Chef

In a highly competitive world, where larger-than-life chefs have egos to fuel, our executive chef Tony Pierce is quietly modest about his culinary talents. However, on 22 November 2008, in front of an audience of more than 200 chefs, the Dumfries and Galloway based talent finally got his chance to take a bow when he picked up the top prize at the Scottish Chef Awards, the biggest honour in Scottish cooking

Tony fell into the catering trade by chance when a friend asked him to join him at an open career day at Salford College where both signed up on a general catering diploma course. While at college he worked as a waiter in Manchester and discovered a passion for the catering industry

His first Chef's position was at the Britania Hotel in Manchester where the Head Chef suggested he try for a position in the prestigious Gleneagles Hotel

It was when one of the chefs at the hotel's fine dining restaurant, Eagles Nest, took ill that Tony was given the opportunity to move from the main kitchen into the Eagles Nest kitchen - two weeks before the restaurant closed

Since then, he has worked at a string of high profile Michelin star restaurants including Mallory Court, The Box Tree Restaurant and Inverlochy Castle in Fort William

But it is his work as head chef at the idyllic Knockinaam Lodge, a historic hunting lodge in Dumfries and Galloway where he won a Michelin star and has managed to retain his star for an impressive 22 years